Most Lean Cuisine stuff is kind of blase but I really like their parmesan crusted fish. It’s lunch size so if that’s not enough for you for dinner you can bake a potato in the microwave to go with it.
EVOL is really good. Harder to find in my Midwestern town, but I snap it up when I see it.
I used to get Saffron Road a lot until I started to balk at its high price. But the Chicken Pad Thai was amazing especially if you add some peanuts to it.
ETA: And put some Sriracha on if that’s your sort of thing.
I like the Healthy Choice Power Bowls and the Korean Inspired Beef one is really nice and spicy.
I also recommend Trader Joe’s. I don’t eat frozen food too much but the few things I’ve picked up from TJ’s I have really enjoyed. They have a macaroni & cheese called Mac’s Diner or something and it was really good. I’ve re-purchased it and everything.
I think I’ve bought maybe frozen egg rolls from TJ’s, also good. And spinach pie, or spinach wraps. All of it’s good.
Thanks for all the ideas, it seems trips to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods are needed to help me break the rut of the regular stuff I’ve been getting from Jewel/Osco delivery.
I have to laugh at myself. Yes, most of the entrees at TJ/WF are going to cost more than a $2 Lean Cusine, but I’ve been a working professional for a long time and I don’t have to eat on a college student budget! Even $5 for a frozen entree is less than half of going out for lunch.
Oh, I read the title and thought you were looking for quality ingredients. I was going to recommend Wyman’s frozen blueberries, which are truly excellent. But it’s best to defrost them before using them to bake, or they mess up baking times and food can get soggy.
I don’t buy a lot of pre-made frozen meals, but I want to second this suggestion:
I made some stew two weeks ago, and froze 3 pints in old Chinese Soup containers. I brought them to work, let them defrost on my desk, and then nuked them until they were warm at lunch time. I was afraid the texture of the potatoes would be ruined, but it was surprisingly fine. And everything tasted just like before I froze it. I’m planning to do it again this week, not to avoid “eating out”, but because I like the food I cook more than I like what I can buy near work.
(My husband has recently started dieting, so we suddenly have a lot more leftovers than we used to. Thus the new experiments with freezing.)
I’m guessing that most liquidy foods would freeze similarly well. I’ll be experimenting.
I hate being poor. Reading this thread makes me realize I never buy frozen food that isn’t super cheap. I have no idea what counts as good frozen food.
Heh. I freeze our blueberries as they’re harvested, for later use. In waffles, I prefer to add them to my batter frozen. The end result is perfect, compared to the exploded berry messes if they are thawed prior to use.
I don’t normally bother with frozen entrees. They tend not to taste of very much except too damn much salt. However, I’ve had good luck with two or three different brands of frozen ravioli. You still need a sauce to go with it, but that’s doesn’t need to be difficult or time-consuming.
Stouffer’s Salisbury Steak with Mac & Cheese. 24 carbs, tastes like a guilty pleasure (at least for me, it reminds me of being a kid). I always keep a couple in the freezer for those days where my day is so nuts that I have zero time to eat lunch.
I don’t know about Whole Foods, but many of the Trader Joe’s frozen meals aren’t very much more that two bucks. It’s really not an expensive place to shop. I like some of their Indian meals.
And I agree that the Stouffer’s lasagna is pretty good, as these things go.
Consider taking a walk through Aldi. I can particularly recommend the single portion eggplant parmesean and the mussels, either one is $2.49/ea and punch well above their pricepoint. They also have these microwavable bags of seafood pasta (Priano(?) branded, green bags) that are amazing but probably 2 or 3 portions each. Note that Aldi rotates inventory throughout the year so here today might be gone tomorrow. Maybe never to be seen again, maybe back in six months.
Trader Joes is ok for the frozen bowl things but fresh meats and produce are really high cost. I do like the shelf stable boxed butternut squash soup, though a quart is a lot.
Frozen dinners get a bad rap, mostly desrerved, but a few do stand out as not only “surprisingly edible”, but quite good.
The Saffron Road entrees as someone else mentioned. Lamb Skaag is delicious
‘Evol’ stuff
Pf Chang’s ‘Home Menu’ entrees. Spicy Korean Pork is super tasty.
Yeah I like that one too.
You can add me to the list that would recommend Stouffer’s. Their lasagnas are excellent. As well as their stuffed peppers.
Stuff I would NOT recommend:
Michelina’s entrees. I tried some but wasn’t that impressed.
Celeste frozen pizzas. Horrible.
Hot Pockets. They are a good way to burn your mouth when you bite into them and hot cheese or sauce comes squirting out.
Frozen burgers/chicken sandwiches. The ones that come with the bun. In experience the buns just get soggy. For example:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Spicy-Chicken-Sandwiches-2ct-15-5oz/16213449
Ditto … being allergic to mushrooms [used to boost umami, and a relatively cheap bulk out the amount of food ingredient] palm/coconut [the new twaddle superfood now going into damned near everything … ]and bivalves [to boost the luxury flavor of stuff like lobster bisque, or any seafood product they dump in clam juice] I tend to avoid premade foods …
Did you know you can jar your own soups and stews in glass bell jars? Doesn’t need freezing, saves freezer space and you take the metal lid off and you can nuke it in the jar and dump it into a bamboo or sugar cane fiber bowl. [I like the sugar cane fiber bowls and plates instead of standard tree based paper plates and bowls, they are sturdier and use what would normally be a waste product.]
I used to like them. I found them tasty and they only cost 99 cents. But they stopped including the metalized microwave heating disks so now the crust is soggy. I suppose they’re trying to save a fraction of a penny per pizza but they’ve lost at least one customer.
And aside from being very unhealthy ( IMO ), they produce a very very unpleasant stench while being heated/cooked. I surmise this must be the oil/shortening used. It’s like dirty cooking oil from a a fryer vat, and it’s everything I can do not to wretch.
I’ve tried a couple of Frontera dinners. Not bad.
Under no circumstances should you ever buy frozen brussels sprouts. They are gruesome. Get fresh ones, steam them, enjoy.
Ditto on Michael Angelos- I love the Eggplant Parmesan!!